The Coronavirus Effect on Small Businesses
Force majeure
The rapidly escalating COVID-19 global pandemic seems like the stuff of hollywood doesn’t it? Yet the reality is that many businesses this week have closed their doors to comply with the appeal to implement social distancing. The effect this will have on small businesses financially is hard to measure right now - my brain cannot comprehend the numbers. The effect this has already had on small business owners is already clear to see - it’s devastating. This is unprecedented.
None of us yet know how long this will last so our situation is unknown and it is a scary time. I’ve spent the week on a rollercoaster of emotion. One minute my head is in my hands, the next I’m feeling determined and positive. Normally I would try to contain these weird feelings and focus on what I can control, but this time I’ve just allowed myself to sit with them as they pass through me - using every CBT technique I know to avoid full-scale descent into panic.
Forewarned & Forearmed
Here in Germany we are a little ahead of the UK response to Coronavirus, so I was aware that it was likely that my clients would need to close. I prepared myself to go into communications mode and help them navigate this as best we can. When I wrote my last post, Steps to protect your small business during the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t think even I expected that advice to be so prescient. Yet, I’ve spent the week following the steps I outlined, almost to the letter.
The process of informing my client’s customers that they are closing down facilities and postponing workshops, classes and events was, honestly, pretty upsetting. I’ve gone through it with six clients and each time has brought me lower as the reality of what this means for our livelihoods sinks in.
Never Underestimate Human Kindness
However, if there is a positive aspect to any of this it’s the response we have seen to the thousands of emails we have sent out with the news. The outpouring of love from their customers has been incredible. Each client has been flooded with a deluge of emails full of genuine concern and pledges of support. Until now, we have experienced very few requests for cancellations/refunds, almost everyone was happy to let us hold their bookings until we can reschedule new dates. The message of ‘postpone over cancel’ was heard, understood and supported. It was a lifeline of human kindness and community in a sea of uncertainty and it gave me a great deal of hope for our collective recovery.
People are fundamentally good.
The power of community
I am more sure now than ever, that we WILL get through this as small businesses but we’ll need to pull together as a community. We’ll need to support each other, be flexible, creative and take all the help offered by suppliers, customers, government and local authorities. But we will be ok, we just have to negotiate the next few weeks and months.
You are not alone. Eve and I have set up a pop-up support group on Facebook called Small & Strong Together. We’re bringing all of our small business friends together to stay strong in the face of uncertain times - please join us and find yourself amongst a community of people in the same boat. There’s no selling, it’s all about community.
We have members who are experts in marketing (hello!), accountancy, law, HR and wellbeing who are actively sharing their advice. We're all sharing tips to help you adjust your strategies throughout the changing situation so that your business can survive this pandemic, and then go on to thrive.
We’re also digging into the government support available so you know where to go to get financial support too. We are holding each other up.
We will come out the otherside, like warriors. This too shall pass.